Merrick Maxfield, his wife Jacqui, and their eight children eat a lot of yogurt. In order to keep enough on hand, they owned four yogurt makers and Jacqui spent many hours making it from scratch. Milk has to be heated up slowly, stirred frequently and watched carefully to be sure it doesn’t burn. After reaching the right consistency, it needs to be cooled down and poured into different containers. Then it’s time to clean up a sink full of dishes. With eight children, who has time for all that?
The Maxfields wanted their children (and themselves) to benefit from the probiotics provided by yogurt, but they were concerned with the expense and artificial ingredients that are contained in many commercially made yogurts. They also didn’t like the number of plastic containers that would eventually find their way into a landfill.
Merrick was convinced there must be an easier and better way to make yogurt at home. As a passionate life-long inventor, he dove headfirst into his 44th business venture. Merrick had graduated from the University of Utah and then pursued an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. He had worked as a Director of Marketing, in the automobile industry and as a Product Manager for Sabre Travel Information Network. He had even spent several months in 1995 as an Intern for Vice President Al Gore at the White House.
While none of that came even close to the nutrition and food arena, the variety of experiences gave him the foundation for pursuing this venture. Merrick notes that the usual advice in marketing is that you can only be one thing to one group of people. But food and nutrition are something that everyone is concerned with, and he is convinced his product is a valuable addition to improving the overall availability of healthy food. Merrick had to go through 27 “generations” of prototypes, but in 2016 the Probiotic Maker became a reality.
The Probiotic Maker resembles a heating pad made into a “pot” that holds a container of milk. It is made in different sizes to accommodate gallon and half gallon milk cartons. The milk can be skim, 1%, 2%, high protein, or whole. Milk alternatives can be used if they contain natural sugars and no harsh preservatives. A starter mixture, nicknamed “seeds,” is added to the milk. These seeds contain 11 different types of probiotics, providing many more strains than most commercial yogurts. Prep time takes only a few minutes. The milk carton is then placed in the Probiotic Maker which is plugged in and left to do its magic! It usually takes about eight to nine hours, depending on the what thickness is preferred. The yogurt can be flavored if desired and then cooled in the refrigerator.
Traditional yogurt makers can get too hot, killing some of the probiotics. The Probiotic Maker is designed to remain at a lower consistent temperature (roughly body temperature). Probiotic Maker is made in the USA, and comes with a risk-free, 100% money back guarantee.
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